1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to temporary flood walls. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system which utilizes a continuous sleeve that is fitted into each connecting wall. This sleeve provides a stiff and straight support for the entire length of the connecting walls by use of a metal rod which is threaded through the sleeve and supported by the metal rails of the sled or any other hanging device that may be used.
2. General Background of the Invention
The art of building temporary flood walls is well known. The most commonly known method is to fill small bags full of sand and stack them up in a pyramid fashion to hold back flood waters. These small bags weighed between 50 and 100 pounds (between 22.68 and 45.36 kilograms). Building flood walls with this method involves a lot of labor and time.
Other methods involve simply piling truckloads of sand and dirt on top of levees. But while this method is fast, it is prone to washouts as the sand and dirt is uncontained against the flow of water.
Still another method uses open top bulk bags with wooden frames inside them which are bolted together in a cellular fashion to create vertical long walls that are then filled with sand and dirt. It is a fairly fast method for constructing walls but has the expense of the wood and is limited to vertical walls that can be pushed over by fast moving flood waters or collapsed from beneath as the flood waters hollow out the ground beneath them.
Still another method uses specially shaped bags that have triangular shaped sides. These bags are delivered using a large sled device that makes filling easier and faster than the methods listed above. However, this sled device relies on a bag support method that requires special parts to support each bag by its four corners that can be expensive and unreliable. Further the triangular shaped front of the containers are often unfilled due to its pointed toe. Due to the wave action of the flood waters, the sand and dirt can move after placement and cause some loss of control over its shape. And, just as the square bags can be hollowed out from below, so can this triangular faced design.
In short, each of the existing methods of flood control that utilize flexible materials still have shortcomings that need to be addressed.